The Blessings of Justification

Sermon shared by Scott Kircher

The Blessings of Justification

Summary: In the Christian sense, being justified in Christ means being made right before God through our faith in Jesus Christ. It is not something we can do for ourselves, and while this justification is a blessing in itself, there are also many other blessings

Summary: In the Christian sense, being justified in Christ means being made right before God through our faith in Jesus Christ. It is not something we can do for ourselves, and while this justification is a blessing in itself, there are also many other blessings

Since we have been Justified through faith in Christ, we are blessed withPeace with GodAccess to GodHope for God’s GloryThe Love of GodReconciliation with God

The Basis of Justification

Outline based on Warren Wiersbe’s “Live Like a King” – Romans ch. 5 in the BE series

IntroductionSlide

Casey Anthony caseThis past week, many who followed the Casey Anthony trial were shocked by the not guilty verdict that was handed down.

Many people had a sense that she was guilty and this not guilty verdict freed her from the consequences and penalty that she should be facing for committing murder of her young daughter.

Now, while I am not here to comment on this case, it is interesting to me that what we are going to be talking about today has to do with a legal term that has as its definition exactly what happened.

It is the term justify.It means2. To declare free of blame; absolve.3. To free (a human) of the guilt and penalty attached to grievous sin.http://www.thefreedictionary.com/justified

If you are a Christian, if you are someone who has received Jesus Christ as your Savior, then you have been justified by faith in Christ, you have been freed from the penalty of your sin.

Turn with me this morning to Romans Chapter 5.Slide

We have been spending our “Summer in Rome” studying the book of Romans.

To recap and catch us all up a bit, we have learned up to this point that the Gospel is the power of God for salvation and for righteous living.

We have seen that people will stand before God without any excuses for not receiving Christ for their salvation.We saw that for those who don’t acknowledge Christ, that the excuse “I didn’t know there was a God” will not hold water because God has made knowledge of Himself available to everyone through Creation and our Consciences.

We also saw that Paul let the Jews know that they could not rely on their possession of the law or on the fact that they were circumcised, as a replacement for trusting in Christ by faith.

In Chapter 4, Paul even gives the example of Abraham from the Old Testament to show that salvation has always been by faith and that we will only be justified by faith, just like Abraham.

Now, let’s see what Paul has to say in Romans 5. We are going to read the first 11 verses and pause there as we discuss them.

Romans 5:1-115 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. 6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still